There’s a long list of important Ottawa-specific issues, but somehow, we don’t expect federal candidates to articulate and champion them, either during the election or once in power.
Ottawa Centre MP Catherine McKenna, alongside Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson (L) and Ottawa South MP David McGuinty, speaks about the Sir John Carling site for the construction of the new Civic campus of the Ottawa Hospital in 2016. She had at first endorsed Tunney’s Pasture for the hospital site. Errol McGihon / Postmedia
The federal government is more important to Ottawa than to any other city in the country, but the election campaigns in our local ridings are typically listless and low-key, as if federal politics doesn’t matter here.
It’s a paradox that doesn’t serve the city well. We have a long list of important Ottawa-specific issues, but we don’t expect candidates to articulate and champion them, either during the election or in power. Over the next few weeks, I will be writing a series of columns urging Ottawans to speak up and define our local issues, and to demand that political candidates take clear positions on them.
Politically, Ottawa is a reliably Liberal town and that puts us at a disadvantage. The two major political parties are tempted to take us for granted or write us off as an area where no ground can be gained. In the last election, seven of Ottawa’s eight ridings went to the Liberals, with only Carleton Conservative Pierre Poilievre bucking the trend. It’s the same in neighbouring Glengarry-Prescott-Russell and the four Outaouais ridings. All of those seats are held by Liberals.
The two major political parties are tempted to take us for granted or write us off as an area where no ground can be gained.
Nothing motivates a political party quite like the prospect of taking a seat or the fear of losing one, but that rule seems to be mostly suspended here. Four Liberal-held local ridings went Progressive Conservative in last year’s provincial election, but the federal Conservatives are offering only middling alternatives, avoiding people with name recognition or notable records of community achievement. The exception is Glengarry-Prescott-Russell, where former MP Pierre Lemieux is trying to regain his seat. The NDP is also running a strong candidate in Ottawa-Centre, lawyer Emilie Taman, but the party’s overall weakness makes change unlikely.
Certainly, the fattening of the federal goose will benefit local Liberal candidates. Since the election of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, money has been flowing from Parliament Hill. In Trudeau’s first budget, federal spending was projected at $317 billion. Four years later, it’s up to $355 billion. The federal public service has been growing accordingly. In Ottawa-Gatineau, the total public administration sector has increased by 25,000 jobs in the last four years, and the vast majority of that hiring has been federal.
It’s laughable to call Conservative leader Andrew Scheer’s five-year budget balance plan austerity, but it’s safe to say the pace of hiring and spending growth will slow. That won’t help Scheer’s local candidates, especially if the party fails to identify and champion even a single local issue.
Ottawa’s lack of political clout is frustrating when one considers that the imaginary political construct of the National Capital Region has 13 seats. It’s not a lot, but it’s only one fewer than Manitoba and more than any of the Atlantic provinces.
Pierre Poilievre, Ottawa’s single federal Conservative MP. Jean Levac / jpg
What Ottawa doesn’t have is a strong regional politician who makes sure his area is looked after. It hasn’t usually been that way. A recent article in the Citizen by former local cabinet ministers John Baird and John Manley was a reminder that having cabinet ministers who knew and defended the capital was the norm for a long time. The two former politicians laid out a position on the development of LeBreton Flats, an issue our current MPs seem to have slept through.
One would expect a local MP to know her city and what is important to its voters, but there hasn’t been much evidence of that in the last four years. The low point was the National Capital Commission’s recommendation to build the new Civic campus of the Ottawa Hospital at Tunney’s Pasture, a site that is already rather occupied. This laughable idea was quickly championed by Ottawa Centre MP Catherine McKenna, our lead local Liberal. It was a tone-deaf decision that was quickly rescinded but it made one wonder if local Liberal MPs understand the city.
In the last election, rookie candidates were too willing to run generic campaigns that relied on the party brand. After four years on the job, that shouldn’t be good enough this fall. As voters, we need to expect more.
Randall Denley is an Ottawa political commentator and author. Learn about his new book, Spiked, at randalldenley.com. Contact him at randalldenley1@gmail.com.
Editor’s note: Due to an editing error, MP Catherine McKenna was misidentified in the initial version of this story.
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